As London shifts into Christmas gear, it’s nice to know you can escape tinseltown’s seasonal madness from time to time, and what better way than with some art? How could you possibly fail to be impressed by the Impressionists in London at the Tate Britain or by Modigliani’s collection of nudes at Tate Modern? You…
Soutine’s Culinary Artistry
Monsieur Soutine had a knack for finding good staff. And he certainly liked a man in uniform. Bellboys, waiters, valets, pastry cooks and the occasional maid, would make their way from the grand hotels and restaurants of Paris’s Roaring Twenties onto his fiery canvases. London hasn’t seen a Soutine show for 35 years, but thanks…
Potty for Harry at the British Library
Can you believe it’s been 20 years since ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ was first published? And just in time for Halloween, there’s an enchanting exhibition opening at the British Library. Harry Potter: A History of Magic is a treasure trove of rare books, manuscripts, magical objects and illustrations that will bewitch even the most cynical…
Egypt Uncovered at the Soane Museum
As if you needed an excuse to go and visit one of London’s best-loved museums, but I’m about to give you one. Over at the Soane Museum in Holborn, you can meet an Italian circus strongman turned Egyptologist, and discover tales of robbed tombs and a celebrity Pharaoh. Add to that a three-day candlelit Sarcophagus…
Must-see London exhibitions this October
You might be tempted to start hibernating this autumn, but don’t you dare! London is buzzing this October, from Opera, Passion, Power and Politics at the V & A, to the surreal Gerald Scarfe designs for stage and screen at the House of Illustration, to Reflections at the National Gallery and Spanish masterpieces at the…
Dancing with Degas
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas liked to draw women. He dabbled with horses as well, but really, it was the women that grabbed his voyeuristic attention, often of the dancing or bathing variety. These ethereal damsels are the subject of an exhibition opening on the 20th September at the National Gallery, a collection of thirteen paintings, pastels and…
Art Review: Echoes Across the Century
The Guildhall Art Gallery has been on my cultural radar for a long time. After all, it’s home to some very impressive pre-Raphaelite paintings, and its belly houses the remains of a Roman amphitheatre no less, discovered in 1988 when the gallery was carrying out renovation works. But my reason for heading over to the…
Art Review: The Royal Canalettos
If ever there was an exhibition to make you swoon, it’s this one: over 200 paintings, drawings and prints from the Royal Collection, on display in the majestic Queen’s Gallery in Canaletto and the Art of Venice. The Italian master is in excellent company, surrounded by his contemporaries Francesco Zuccarelli, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta and Pietro…
Art Review: Queer British Art
The word queer sounds well, a bit queer these days, but it’s used in the title of the new exhibition at Tate Britain which opens today. Queer British Art 1861-1967 is a show dedicated to LGBT art, and it’s the first of its kind. It celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act…
Art Review: Selfies at the Saatchi
I wonder how Van Gogh, Kahlo and Rembrandt would feel about sharing an art gallery with Tracey Emin, Kim Kardashian, the Queen and a macaque monkey? For the next two months, they are in bed together in the Saatchi Gallery’s new exhibition: From Selfie to Self-Expression. I admit that I walked into this with some…